Kiss This

When it comes to marriage and relationships, people often talk about "slippery slopes" as is "What's next?" Our favorite answer to that around here is "Freedom for consenting adults. What's the problem with that?" But if someone wants to talk slippery slopes, we say prejudice and denial of rights is a very slippery slope. A case in point is how the prejudice against consanguinamory causes people to discourage any physical affection between family members. Our latest example of this is the uproar over New England Patriots Head Coach, Bill Belichick, head coach of the newly-crowned NFL World Champion New England Patriots kissing his daughter Amanda.

Regardless of what anyone thinks of Belichick, the Patriots, or the NFL in general, we should all be able to agree that there's nothing wrong with such a kiss between a father and daughter, yet clearly there are people who have been vocal about their disapproval. Here's a report from inquisitr.com...

A picture taken after the Patriots won the Super Bowl shows Bill Belichick kissing a woman dead on the lips. However, this woman is not his girlfriend Linda Holliday. It isn’t even Sharon Shenocca, the former New York Giants receptionist rumored to have been in a relationship with Bill. For some, the former or latter would be far better than the woman he actually kissed on the lips, who happens to be his daughter, Amanda Belichick.

Looks like a closed-mouth peck to us. What is the problem?

Apparently, Bill’s grandparents are from Croatia, a culture where people are very hands-on. Over there, men kiss men and women kiss women as a form of mutual affection. Such behavior is considered taboo here in the United States since same-sex kissing or kissing of family members skirts perceived views of homosexuality and incest respectively.

Adults should be free to kiss each other in public, especially when they are celebrating such a special achievement. This is not something to shame. Think about all of the parents and their adult children who are estranged and hostile, perhaps abusive to each other. And we're going to have uptight whiners complaining about people being affectionate and celebratory? The world would be better off we we had more of this kissing. I think some of the people trashing this kiss via social media have some problems, some of which may be jealousy or envy.

Whether it is just a peck like the one pictured, or hugging, or hand-holding, there's nothing wrong with consenting adults doing these things in public. And if they're doing more in private, well, there's no good reason anyone should try to stop them. Down with hate, up with love.